Pack It Up, Pack It In

I can't belive that Sunday night I am getting on a plane. Our room is full of suitcases, my roommates now realizing the sheer volume of all of the souvenirs they bought and the futility of their efforts to cram all of it back into their suitcases. I'm not going to pack until Sunday. Today was our last day of class. It was sad. I went out this morning and bought everyone mochi. It was delicious! I just discovered that the bakery down the street has mochi. I suppose that's a good thing. I got everyone's e-mail address from my class. They have mine. Hopefully, we can stay in touch but it was sort of funny because today we realized that we still don't know each other's real names. Pep, the Thai girl, asked me what she should call me. We only know each other's Chinese names and I don't know how to write those. It just struck me as kind of funny.

Final Countdown

I can't believe that we have less than a week left in Taiwan! Last night we had our final dinner at the Grand Hotel. It was so fancy. Everybody got dressed up in their snazziest. Of course, dress shopping here is especially difficult but I found some info on a shop with every size available so I decided to head out there Sunday night. Drew, wanting to avoid his homework as long as possible, came with me. We walked maybe 3 miles in crazy heat...uphill. At least it was night time. I wish I had written down the name or something so we could have asked for directions or gotten a cab. So we walked (actually it was more like hiked) all the way up Zhongshan, a two hour endeavor. We never found the store. I probably burned off and sweated out a full dress size. I was not happy but Drew is a sweetheart and didn't get mad about it or anything so I bought him a Slurpee for being such a trooper. Monday, I didn't do so hot on our dictation but neither did anyone else in my class so our laoshi postponed our test to tomorrow. Dinner was amazing. Everybody made me do the walrus (chopsticks under your top lip) and a good time was had by all.

Correspondance

I'm sorry for going so long without posting. We've been having issues with getting a proxy to work for the blogger. Lately, I've gone out with my buddy twice. We went out to an old military base to look at frogs. It was actually really fun. We got to hang out and have dinner with some Taiwanese hippies. Last night, we went out to a lounge bar with one of her friends. I'm the only one who is going out with their buddy outside of the allotted time on Wednesdays. Today, we learned how to make dragon whisker candy. It turns out that I am not cut out for a career in dragon whisker candy making. Mine looked like it got into a knife fight. Lately, class has gotten a little more difficult. The discrepancy between what the other people in my class know and what I know is becoming more apparent. Well, I wanted more of a challenge. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. I have not been feeling well at all lately. My stomach has actually gotten worse. That probably has a great deal to do with why I am so tired all of the time. In other news, Meg and I went hunting for our mail and I finally found mine. Everybody is getting a kick out of the card and the fact that Mom put in an update on the dog. I love my puppy. I can't believe that I'll be back in the States in a little more than a week. It's such a strange combination of feelings. I miss home and my friends so much but I also love being here. While we were trying to find out letters, I was actually able to converse in Chinese. I was speaking Chinese, with a Taiwanese dwarf none the less. There were some bits where she was talking too fast but all in all, I got the gist. It's amazing how much you can just absorb by being around the language all the time. There's nothing else like it. I don't know how the other kids in my Chinese class at GVSU are going to be able to keep up with us. The difference is night and day. I think most of it has to do with our confidence in our abilities. Either way, this trip was so worth it.

Be Cool, Stay in School

So, finally to the big reason I came here. We started classes on Wednesday and I have to say, it's a piece of cake. The only thing that I'm a little worried about is that I have to learn BoPoMoFo, which is a pronounciation system designed for people who are already fluent in Chinese. My laoshi says that pinyin (English alphabet spelling out Chinese words) isn't Chinese so we shouldn't bother. The thing is, it's exactly the same only they use symbols instead of letters. My class is made up of two Koreans, a Japanese girl who looks like the Asian version of the wife in the Sixth Sense, a really pretty lady from Thailand and a Turk who sucks at Chinese. Laoshi (teacher) actually used my handwriting as an example of how pretty handwriting can be. Something about how you don't have to be Asian to do well. I laughed, thinking back to Chiu Laoshi saying that I'm pretty but my handwriting is very much not so. I finished my homework for this weekend but I'm not super confident about the dictation that we have tomorrow. Instead of just vocab words like I'm used to, she reads whole sentences. The only problem is that I don't know all of the words in the sentences because they have had different vocab in previous chapters. I've been studying by writing all of the example sentences in the chapter but I'll let you know how that goes.
I wasn't feeling very well today so I stayed in bed for longer than I should have. This resulted in me going out alone for dinner at 9:30. I'm completely fine with that. It's amazing how safe I feel walking by myself in Taipei. The mentality is so different than the American predisposition towards crime. Shoplifting would be so easy but there is a level of trust that is really neat to see. It makes you feel good about people. I was walking back from the restaurant with my delicious pork fried rice when a man struck up a conversation with me. That happens when you are white and in Asia. People want to practice their English. It turns out that the man was from Malaysia. We talked in Chinese for a while. It made me happy that my skills are growing. His mother is Chinese so that's why he's studying the language. He goes to the same school as me. He's here until December. Did I mention how friendly everyone is here? Sometimes people look kind of scowly but if you smile, just about everyone smiles back. Except the white people. The white people look perpetually unhappy. It's to be expected I guess. Anyway, I have to drop off laundry in the morning so I have to get up early. Therefore, I'm going to bed. Love to all!

What A Relief!

Day 3
That was pretty much an all travel day. Mountain roads + very confident driver + not being able to see out the front= 0 contents in Chelsea's stomach. That was embarrassing. Then Jason, being the asshole he always is, made fun of me for it. He's a real sweetheart sometimes. We arrived in Hualien and I was, of course, grumpy and not really in the mood to walk around but Curtis said that I should at least get a lay of the land. I'm pretty sure that our tour guide was on something because he couldn't walk in a straight line and was really strange the entire trip. Being tired and irritable, I got phenomenally frustrated with following someone who would wander about 30 yards in achieving a forward gain of 10. As soon as Curtis said we were on our own, I went back to the hotel. I took a shower and felt considerably better. Since I didn't have deodorant I was sweaty and stinky along with having the remnant scent of eau de spew. The shower was particularly amazing because we had a tub and a shower curtain. I fell asleep hard and fast.

Day 4
Last day of the trip! I was tired and sick of being on a bus 10 hours a day as was everyone else. We went to Toroko Gorge. It was so beautiful there. We walked around in the park area and on the old road that was dug by the Army during the 50's. In the gorge, there were so many swallows zooming around. The curves of the gorge cause the wind to double back on itself so they were making these super tight high speed turns. It was a little shot of adrenaline just watching them. More driving. No more throwing up. Then we arrived at this little town that is famous for it's freshwater shrimp. They also had a ton of paddleboats out on the lake that the shrimp come from so we putzed around on those for a little bit. Then we were onto the shrimp...or the shrimp were onto us. It turns out the local specialty is drunken shrimp. The shrimp are thrown into rice wine and spices where they die. They don't die for a couple minutes so they are still alive when they get put on the table and still twitching when you eat them. It was definitely an experience. More driving and then we were back at Shi Da. It's strange how quickly a dorm room can feel like home. It was nice to be able to fall asleep in the same, although plywood-esque, bed.

The day after we got back to Taipei a group of us went to Taipei 101. The world's tallest building and home of the world's fastest passenger elevator. The elevators reach a top speed of more than a kilometer a minute, rising 89 floors in 37 seconds. The view was spectacular but it was definitely a touristy kind of thing. It cost 320 kuai for the student price to go up and then another 100 to go to the outdoor observation deck. I wore my brown knee length skirt. That was not the smartest attire for standing over 500 meters up. Think Marilyn Monroe x 10. Tomorrow classes are starting so I'm pretty hyped. I'm starting at chapter 11 and most of the other first years are starting at chapter 6. I've already read through the chapter and I don't think it's anything I can't handle. I'll let you know after I have class though. Wish me luck (and by luck, I mean a hot, single, straight guy with an accent)!

I'm Still Asleep

Sorry for the serious gap in between posts! I just got back from a four-day trip around the island of Taiwan. It was so much fun but I am so glad to be back at Shi Da.

Day 1
Our journey started out with Jess and I not being woken up so I had nine minutes to get ready and finish packing. I had most of it in my bag but I left out my deodorant and my towel…so I was quite the image of hygiene during the trip. We took a short bus ride to the Taipei Main Station where we boarded the high speed train. That was very cool! It looked like the inside of a commercial jet. The High Speed Rail travels at speeds up to 300 kilometers per hour so our journey to Chiayi only took an hour and a half. There, we met with our tour guide and bus driver. After a long and bumpy ride into the mountains, we stopped at a tea plantation. We got to see them drying and rolling the tea. It was interesting and it smelled so good. Then, we sampled some of the tea that we saw being made. The Oolong was very good but not worth 4000 NT ($120 US) per pound. After more long and bumpy driving, we arrived at Alishan. It was so beautiful there. We had lunch and then went on a very long, scenic hike. I got some amazing pictures of the trees and the mist. There was so much vibrance and life. It was a nice change in pace from all of the concrete of Taipei. The air was so clear even though the humidity was killer. Dinner was chicken soup made without water. It was all rice wine for the broth. That was a fun time. We walked back up the mountain to get back to our room. All of the girls had to share a room so that meant that six other people (technically only five because Tracy always sleeps with Jason) had to put up with my snoring. Therefore, I sat outside the room for a while and read to give the other girls some time to fall asleep before my rumblings commenced.

Day 2
The day started far too early. We received a wake up call at 3:40 AM. The sunrise on Alishan is one of the five wonders of the area. Train time was 4:20 and the sun was scheduled to come up at 5:21. It was cloudy so we didn’t get to see the sun break the horizon. It was still beautiful although there were too many people crowded into the area. Instead of taking the train back to the hotel, we just walked back since it was all downhill anyway. Breakfast was a disappointment. I was expecting at least a little bit of fruit or something fresh since we were in the tropics. It was all duck eggs, rice porridge and peanuts among other things of a similar nature. My saving grace was coffee and toast with Nutella. The majority of the day was spent on the bus. We got to Kunding around 4 o’clock. I got to go swimming in the Strait of Taiwan. It was fun but I got stung by several jellyfish. There was a camera crew on the beach that was filming, as Mike described it, “a combination of Girls Gone Wild and Mickey Mouse Club.” It was two teams of girls dressed in fairly modest bathing suits popping balloons on each other and such. Dinner that night was amazing. I took pictures of everything because it all looked so fancy. I didn’t upload them so everybody can see them when I get home. We had clams, lobster, mussels and all sorts of delicious goodness from the sea.



Four Day Trip Around Taiwan

Here's a little slideshow of my really pretty pictures from the trip. I need to get to sleep so I’ll tell of the rest of my travels tomorrow.